Monday, February 26, 2007

Discovery announced yesterday that they will air a documentary which claims that archeologists have identified the tomb of Jesus and his family. (Note that the announcement was too important for Silver Spring so it had to be made in NYC.) In addition, the documentary claims that they have evidence that Jesus fathered a son with Mary Magdalene.

This will no doubt piss some people off greatly. Apparently, security at Discovery headquarters has been tightened for the weeks leading up to the airing of the show in anticipation of protests by religious groups. Security guards have been instructed to keep a look out for a homicidal albino monk who will stop at nothing to prevent this documentary from airing.

UPDATE: Ted Koppel will moderate a panel that will debate the documentary immediately after it airs. I'm not sure if this will be held in the lobby of the Discovery building as it was for Koppel's first show.

I'm kind of disappointed in the Discovery building that they don't have some public friendly things on their first floor. Yes, there are the displays there in the lobby, but they're only open during business hours. I went by on the weekend with my little nieces to see the T-rex and the guard was, uh, not nice to us. Apparently, it's an imposition for her to get up off her behind. We looked at things through the windows, then tried to open the locked doors, which prompted this lovely young woman to start hollering at us and making dismissive gestures. Yes, standing there with a four and six year old I must have looked very threatening. I think she could have been polite about hit.

"I'm kind of disappointed in the Discovery building that they don't have some public friendly things on their first floor. Yes, there are the displays there in the lobby, but they're only open during business hours."

I agree. It's unfortunate that Discovery's lobby isn't hooked up like the National Geographic's in DC.

It would be great -- for residents and businesses -- if either Discovery or NOAA could open up a science or natural history museum.

I realize that we've got the Smithsonian in DC, but why not have something here in DTSS on a smaller scale, with fewer crowds?

I wish the religious right wing crazy people would spend more time adopting children and less time bitching about liberals.

I always think the hypocrisy boils down to this... What would Jesus choose? 1) Support national health care coverage or 2) Make same sex marriages illegal. The party lines are split down the middle and yet the Democrats are the irreverent baby killers...

NOAA has a science center and display area in the building behind the wave pond, but has never really had the funding to do more than the occasional display or program in there. Earlier this month, there was a nice interactive display on the 200th anniversary of the agency.

I still consider this great press for Silver Spring. After growing up in Alabama (proud to say Huntsville, though), the news that comes out of there is rarely something to be fond of (regularly featured in News of the Weird). I *cringe* every time one of my friends sends me a message with the title "News from Home."

At least we HAVE the Discovery Headquarters here. Though they should have made the announcement here - not in NYC. That seemed like sort of a slap.

This is going to be MUCH better than heckling protesters in from of Planned Parenthood. REVEL in it, folks. It'll be fun! Now, if we just had that pit o' crocs and the albino nearby, we'd be all Hollywood and stuff.

A thought popped into my mind last night. If I was walking around DTSS on a nice Saturday and happened to pass an albino monk on the sidewalk, I don't think I'd even give him a second glance. I honestly think that if you stand on a busy corner here that sooner or later every sort of person in the world would walk by you. I was at the Majestic a few months back and in front of me in line was a man in full African Tribal gear, including some kind of war club/walking stick thing and a large wooden hat with a brass knob on the top. I am not making this up. The funny thing was that from the looks of him he wasn't an African immigrant, just a free spirit of some kind. My only thought about him was that he was going to have to take off the hat if he planned on sitting in front of me.